Soul: Act Three: Hoenn: Return of the Hollow Knights
by MinawaKitten
Summary: The time many children wait for has finally arrives for Sally Banks. With a smile on her face she heads off on an adventure though Hoenn with no ideal goal with her best friend. As chaos rises through out the land Khris Birch, the stepson of Professor Birch, carries out his research for his father. Together, the two meet two men who are determined to rise the land and sea. Game AU


"I dunno," the young girl sighs, swinging her legs lazily as she rests on her stomach. "Maybe both?"

"Both?" the boy repeats, "That will be a lot more work on your part to participate in contests and gym battles."

"I don't care..." the girl whines rolling on the carpet. The boy rolls his eyes at the spectacle before returning to his paperwork. "If I get to go on an adventure with my best friend I'll be fine..." The girl drags out her vowels. He gives his friend a look as she tugs at his pants leg.

"You know I'm leaving to help dad with his research." His friend loudly whines back. What an intelligent response. The girl continues to whine and moan until her friend reaches an agreement with her. "I suppose. I can't stay the whole time though..." The girl lets out an exuberant cheer, swinging her leg in the air. Her leg hits the near by desk. She curls up in a ball and lays there in pain.

The boy is concerned but not enough to ask how she's doing. He knows better, she'll be up when her show comes back on.

"Breaking news."

Well that got his attention. He leans back in his chair ever so slightly so he can see the television screen. The reporter is going off saying odd things about how some people became pokemon and are duking it out with others.

It's like some bad anime.

But of course _she_'s enthralled. Magical shoujo powers, or something, fly across the stadium and beautiful grils clad in kimonos dance to a soothing melody. The boy sighs and returns to his work.

"That was so cool!" The girl suddenly yells. It seems that weird anime is over now... He can't help but wonder what the ratings are to get such a huge budget to do something like that. "They were like... super heroes! So strong and sooo cool!"

"Right. Heroes..."

"What's with that reaction? They were so cool Khris!"

"It was all CGI..." The girl gasps, as if she was offended.

"There's no way that was CGI!"

"Oh com-" Before a full on argument a voice from the floor below called out to the two children.

"Sally! Khris! It's time for lunch!" The young lady jumps to her feet and rushes off, her hunger getting the best of her. Khris finishes jotting down information on his paper before setting the pencil down and joining his friend and her mother downstairs.

-

With a years time the region of Johto has cleaned itself up and repaired much of the damage caused by Team Rocket in their attempt to overtake the region. A variety of things were rebuilt, which reinforced its overall appereance of old and new. As for Soul Chamber, with their public apperance at the Pokemon Leauge tournament there was a massive increase in support and donations so they could carry out their work. A few companies have taken an interest in the group and produced various pieces of merchandise. The only reason their leader has not ordered a cease and desist is because a good portion of the money comes to the group as well.

Speaking of Soul Chamber, the group returned to their castle in the sky to keep a close eye on various happenings across the various regions of this world. For now, all was silent but they knew it would not last long. In the region known as Hoenn, a young lady and her friend were preparing for their own adventure across this region. Our setting takes place in a small town known as Littleroot.

Morning light peaks in through purple blinds, hitting young Sally Banks in the eye. The girl winces, arching against her bedsheets and stretching her arms above her head where they clank against her bed's headboard. Wincing, Sally rubs her wrist. Once it finally registers to her that she's awake Sally makes the move to get out of her bed, only to get tangled up in the sheets and fall flat on her face. Sally continues on despite that. She shimmies out of her sheets and rushes to her closet for her prepared outfit of choice.

She steps out of her closet dressed in a purple tank top, a thin white a line skirt over an aqua green tube skirt and black shorts. The girl takes a seat at the foot of her closet, pulling on a pair of white knee length socks and aqua green sneakers. Sally glances around her room. It would be quite some time until she would see this place again. Her eyes move to her collection of Soul Chamber figures. She was going to miss these guys... Maybe when she gets a secret base she could move them there. Oh but the search for a perfect secret base was so hard.

Sally sighs loudly. She takes a moment to adjust her Riakou figure and makes her way to the door. She pulls her vest off the wating hook, pulling it on before collecting her hat and bag. She salutes to the figures one more time on her way out. Sally clomps downstairs to greet her mother and brother a good morning. Flopping into her chair she scarfs down her breakfest and then stands stretching once again to fully wake herself up for this big day. Today she was going to embark on her pokemon adventure and her mother was already in tears.

"Do you really have to go?" her younger brother whined.

"I promise I'll come and visit often," Sally reassures him.

Her mother wiped a tear from her eye. "Oh Arceus," she sniffled, "You've grown up so fast! I remember when you were just a little girl, dressed in so many cute frilly dresses and ribbons! Now look at you!" Her mother motions to what she's dressing. Sally raises a brow and inspects for herself. Yep. Just a tank top, skirt and vest. Her mom is crazy. Not like Khris' although. That's a new level of- Sally's thoughts are cut short when her mother grabs in her a vice like grip, removing all the air in her lungs in one go. The mother breaks into a river of tears and wails loudly. "My daughter is all grown up and off to fight trainers!"

"It's okay Mom," Sally wheezes, "I'm Dad's daughter and I'm gonna be the best trainer ever!"

Her mother continued to cry anyway hugging her tighter and kissing her before finally letting Sally go to which she responded by gasping for air. Sally makes this her moment to escape, with a final farewell she rushes out of the front door of her humble home. Once she's outside she wastes no time rushing over to Khris' house. she barges in with such speed and strength the door hits the wall. Khris' mother is uneffected although. The woman is off in her world once more but it's not the same for her beloved Mightyana, who gives her a nasty look and a growl. The growl seems to awaken the woman. She looks over to Sally.

"Oh, Sally," the woman says still a little dazed despite being supposedly woken up for the moment, "Khris isn't here at the moment but he said he'd be back soon.."

Sally nods a quick "Ok" and then dashes up to Khris' room regardless. Khris' room is far more organized and neater than Sally's. His desk is perfectly clean and anything sitting on the desktop is put away in its proper space. All his books are even placed on the bookshelf in alphabetcal and numerical order. The clothes in his dresser and closet are all neatly put away, even his undeerwear. Hahaha. Nerd.

There was a single pokeball resting on the pillow on Khris' bed although. Sally jumps onto the bed with a not so graceful belly flop causing the pokeball to fly into the air and hit the top of her head. With a click, a mudkip is released from the capture device. The mud fish pokemon stares at her with beady black eyes and Sally stares in return. Was this even real...?

"Sally? Mom said you were he- FRICK" Khris announces only to trip over his shoelaces a second later, falling flat on his face.

"Amazing entrance," Sally laughed, "You should really get new shoes!"

Khris just grumbled and threw on his other boots. Once he was back on his feet Khris begins to calmly get his bag together.

"So," Sally says as Khris returns the Mudkip into its pokeball, "Where the heckie is your dad?"

Khris pauses for a moment and then shrugs unsure himself.

Anyway, once Khris was ready the two clomped down the stairs and Khris' mom was soon hugging him and crying while Sally watched from the side.

"You grew up so fast Khrisy!" his mother bawled.

"Mom, don't call me Khrisy," Khris choked but his mother paid no heed. She continued to gush and adore over her son while holding him in her arms and spinning on one foot. For a house wife she was pretty damn strong. Sally snickered regardless. Ahaha Khrisy. Her best friend is such a nerd. Once Khris breaks away from his mother he grabs Sally and makes a dash for the door. The two make a run for the only exit out of the town, passing citizens as they go.

As they enter Route 101 they find the professor in a short tree, clinging to a branch as if his life depended on it. Which it didn't because he was being harassed by a Zigzagoon and a Poochyena. Honestly, it looked very dumb, a grown man shaking in a tree to get away from tiny pokemon. The two preteens stare in mild amazement and horror.

Sally shakes her head and lets out Maribelle, her beloved Skitty. The cat like pokemon happily mewles before it jumps on the Poochyena's backside. The bite pokemon snarls in response to the attack. Poochyena runs in circles trying to shake Maribelle off before deciding to ram into the tree the professor is clinging to for dear life. The tree shakes causing leaves to fall and the professor lets out an undignified yelp. Maribelle is unmoving although. Defeated so quickly.

Khris gives his friend a deadpan look and then sends out his Mudkip, Maya. While Khris commands Maya through the current battle, Sally scrambles about looking for a stick or something she can use to help. Though the most she finds is nearly tripping over a briefcase that professor must have left in the tall grass in his haste to flee. Upon opening it Sally found a single pokeball. She grabs it and releases the contained pokemon which turns out to be a Treecko.

"Treecko, tackle that Poochyena!" Sally commanded. The Treecko turned away and spit on the ground. It seemed to be rather unamaused that someone was bossing it around. "C'mon just help me out here, please!" Sally pleaded.

The Treecko let out a sly "Ko" as if to say "Nah". However after observing the battle itself it dashed ahead simply for the spirit of the fight. Treecko unleashes a Bullet Seed hell upon the Zigzagoon and Poochyena (and partially upon Mudkip as well) and the rowdy pokemon are soon knocked unconcious. Treecko stands tall and proud on the two pokemon with its arms crossed and a twig in its mouth. The professor carefully climbed down from the tree, or at least he tried.

He fell halfway and landed on his back groaning. Khris and Sally sigh and then help him back to his feet.

"Thanks kids, I was sure I was gonna be a goner there!" The professor said, dusting himself off. "We should head back to town before anything else scary happens."

"Poochyenas and Zigzagoons aren't scary," Sally commented.

"They are when they're chasing you and want to eat you alive!" The professor argued.

"How did you even provoke them enough to do that?" Sally squints.

"That's, that is not important," The professor stuttered. Khris shook his head once more. The group reenters the town and heads over to the professor's lab. The man's assistant seems to be relieved that his boss is okay and doing well but the look on his face when he learned the professor was nearly 'killed' by a Poochyena and Zigzagoon was incredible. The man just throws his arms in the air and heads to the depths of the lab. Professor Birch awkwardly coughs.

"Anyway, the day has finally come where you two will leave this humble town and explore what this region has to offer." The professor walks over to a window to gaze out it with a melancholic smile. "I'm going to miss the two of you but you're responable children so I know you'll be safe out there. But..." The man pauses to reach into his lab coat and pulls out two red devices. "I'd like you to have these. I got them from a colleague in Kanto. These are Pokedexs. They're useful devices that supply and record information about pokemon. I'm sure it will help you on your journey Sally," He hands one to the girl and then the other to his own son. "Khris, I have a feeling you'll want to completely fill this out but don't overwork yourself." The two pre-teens thank the adult for his kindness and gaze upon the device in wonder.

"Ah, yes, before I forget," Professor Birch motions to the Treeko, who is off brooding in a corner. "Sally, this is my remaining starter pokemon, I'll entrust him to you. He's a bit rough around the edges but he's a good pokemon." Sally breaks out into a full grin and scoops the pokemon into her arms, much to its horror.

"Oh cool! He's so neat! I'll name him Ken-" The pokemon's tail hits her in the face but she continues no less. "-shin." Now she was more pumped up than ever, Sally takes the wrist of her new pokemon and bursts out of the lab's doors. Khris makes one final wave to his father and follows after his friend, who was now carrying Kenshin above her head with a triumphant yell of joy. 


End file.
